New species, new opportunities

BIM aims to diversify Ireland’s aquaculture production base with new and exciting species. Our development plans are always market led and when deciding which species to farm, we choose those with the greatest potential for profitable production.

Project aim

Our aim is to identify species that that have the potential to be farmed successfully in Ireland. Our efforts have focused in on some surprisingly ordinary fish species, like perch, and some extraordinary shellfish species, such as the abalone.

Once species have been identified, we help new and existing companies to set up farms for production.

Our methods

Once we have established that there is a market demand for the identified species we:

Abalone

Abalone, also considered a delicacy, is not native to Ireland but has been bred in Ireland for the last 20 years in closed recirculation systems. With relatively slow growth rates, this marine gastropod takes three years to reach market size.